RIPH 111

LESSON 1: EXCERPT FROM ANTONIO PIGAFETTA'S FIRST

VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD [CHRONICLE]

Antonio Pigafetta
- An Italian scholar and explorer from the Republic of
Venice.
- He joined the expedition to the Spice Islands led by
explorer Ferdinand Magellan under the flag of King Charles
I of Spain and, after Magellan's death in the Philippines, the
subsequent voyage around the world.
- During the expedition, he served as Magellan's assistant
and kept an accurate journal which later assisted him in
translating the Cebuano language. It is the first recorded
document concerning the language.
1. Piggafetta’s Journal- became the basis for his 1525
travelogue, The First Voyage Around the World.
2. First Voyage- On astonishment. In travel writing, one often
must recreate the first moment of newness, that fresh sense of
awe, on the page for the reader; Pigafetta does it again and
again, by reveling in odd and odder bits of detail. We watch
Pigafetta wonder at trees in Borneo whose leaves appear to
walk around once shed, leaves that "have no blood, but if one
touches them they run away. I kept one of them for nine days
in a box. When I opened the box, that leaf went round and
round it. I believe those leaves live on nothing but air.”
(Pigafetta, 76). We marvel, in the Philippines, at sea snails
capable of felling whales, by feeding on their hearts once
ingested. On a stop in Brazil, we see an infinite number of
parrots, monkeys that look like lions, and "swine that have
their navels on their backs, and large birds with beaks like
spoons and no tongues".
3. Marianas’ islands- Magellan named the
archipelago Islas de los Ladrones, the Islands
of Thieves.

4. From the Marianas, their fleet moved on

to the Philippines.
 THE BATTLE OF MACTAN

On Friday, April twenty-six, Zula, a chief of the island of

Matan,sent one of his sons to present two goats to the
captain-general, and to say that he would send him all that he
had promised, but that he had not been able to send it to him
because of the other chief Cilapulapu, who refused to obey
the king of Spagnia. He requested the captain to send him
only one boatload of men on the next night, so that they
might help him and fight against the other chief. The captain-
general decided to go thither with three boatloads……..
READ THE READINGS
 LESSON 2: EXCERPT FROM JUAN DE PLASENCIA'S
CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS, [SOCIAL-CULTURAL
OBSERVATION]

Juan de Plasencia
 A Spanish friar of the Franciscan Order.
 He spent most of his missionary life in the
Philippines, where he founded numerous
towns in Luzon and authored several
religious and linguistic books, most
notably the Doctrina Cristiana (Christian
Doctrine), the first book ever printed in the
Philippines.
Doctrina Cristiana- The Doctrina Christiana
was an early book on the Catholic Catechism,
written in 1593 by Fray Juan de Plasencia, and is
believed to be one of the earliest printed books in
the Philippines.

Plasencia describe the society of the prehistoric

Filipinos- Father Plasencia describes Filipinos
as being divided into four social conditions or
"estates": principales, hidalgos, pecheros, and
esclavos.
CONT….